Love in Hopeless Places
by Black Lightning Bolt
Summary: Gabriel had only fallen in love three times in his whole life but the third time was definitely the hardest and most deadly. Mentions of slash and het. Spoilers for 'Hammer of the Gods'.


**A/N: So this came out of the blue while I was working on my new multi-chapter. Gabriel centric, but I expect no less as my multi-chapter is as well. :D Enjoy and maybe review? Please?**

**Warnings: Slash and Het pairings mentioned, unrequited love, spoilers for 'Hammer of the Gods' and character death.**

**Pairings: Mentions of Past Kali/Gabriel and Past Gabriel/OFC. Also mentions of unrequited Sabriel.**

**Disclaimer: Would Gabriel still be dead this far into season 7 if I owned it? NO! Therefore, I do not own it.**

**Summary: Gabriel had only fallen in love three times in his whole life but the third time was definitely the hardest and most deadly. **

When he was younger, before Lucifer had fallen and their Father had left them, Gabriel had sworn he would never fall in love. He couldn't see why he would need to and why would he? He had everything he could ever need; his brothers, his Father and his home. He was happy and felt a romantic partner had no use. Love was meant for family and within the family was where his love would stay. He was foolish back then, too innocent and naïve. His elder brothers had protected him all too well, just as he had protected the fledglings.

Then came Lucifer's rebellion and his brothers were at war.

He grew up quickly then, watching the bloodshed. He had pleaded with all of them. His Father had merely shook his head, a sadness in his eyes that made Gabriel's grace ache. Michael had ignored him completely too focused on their Father's orders to realise his brother's anguish. While Lucifer used his silver tongue to try and charm him, twisting his pleas with accusations and anger until Gabriel had run away, broken-hearted at how cold the Morning Star had become. It was then he knew what he had to do. He had to escape because if his family could not love each other then he could not bear to see it. So he fled to Earth; to the humans and the emotional lives they led.

It was on Earth he found the pagan gods and, upon discovering that Loki had disappeared, he joined them posing as the Trickster God. They welcomed him with open arms and after a while they became his new family. They were more barbaric and threatening than his real relations but he grew to love all of them swiftly. It was at that point he fell in love for the first time with a woman way too difficult to please. Kali - the goddess of destruction among many other things. He had tried to woo her and for a while he had succeeded and their relationship had flourished. She had taught him many things in that time and introduced him to most of the sins, primarily lust with her fiery passion igniting him in ways he had never before imagined. She had changed him irrevocably into someone very different to the Gabriel that the angels of heaven had once known. He was less naïve and much less forgiving. Nevertheless Kali had eventually tried of him and, claiming he was not serious enough, had moved on. So Gabriel also moved on. The Norse gods were not often together anyway so he began to roam the Earth alone and found himself a purpose. He decided to punish the wicked and cruel with his powers like the angel of judgement he had once been. Yet not in the way he once would have done. He was a trickster and so he would punish through trickster means.

It was a few centuries later that he met his second love; Katie Woods. She was much different to Kali; quiet, gentle and devoted. She reminded Gabriel of his younger self at times and it made him want to protect her all the more. They were together for many years and Gabriel even though of making his vessel age alongside her so he could stay with her for the rest of her life, but fate was cruel and he never had such chance. Illness stole his human beloved away to his original home where he could not follow her. She had only been twenty seven. Her death had angered him and he wondered if it were some sort of punishment and perhaps his Father, all-seeing and all-knowing as he was, had decided to rebuke him for his desertion and the sins he had committed. Deep in his heart though he knew that wasn't true. His Father was not cruel and would never allow another to suffer at his hand for another's crimes. The knowledge didn't soothe his fury.

The third time, and his final love, had been after a long period of bitterness. Centuries upon centuries of carnal pleasure; candy, punishments and one night stands. They hardened him even further until he was so wrapped up in his role as the trickster, as Loki, he had almost forgotten his true role in the world. His brothers, who he had once loved so strongly, were nothing but a painful memory of a gloomier time where his heart ached in his chest and love had been pushed aside for bloodshed. The angel Gabriel was dead at that point, buried so deep that he thought no one could make him return.

Until Sam Winchester and his brother worked it out and the archangel burst forth in his brain once more causing him to fall in love all over again. Only this time it was different because he didn't fall in love with a woman. No, the archangel Gabriel fell in love with Sam Winchester; his elder brother's vessel. Completely off limits in every way. So he refused to help them, even when Castiel stared at him in what could only be desperation. He would stay away from the boy, he decided firmly with fierce promise, and he would avoid the war he had once run so far away from.

He had never been good at keeping promises.

Hence why he was here, with Lucifer in front of him, standing against his brother because of an emotion he had once sworn would never settle in his grace or in his heart.

"_Brother, don't make me do this."_

"_No one makes us do anything." _

"_I know you think you're doing the right thing Gabriel. But I know where your heart truly lies…Here. Amateur hocus pocus. Don't forget, you learned all your tricks from me, little brother."_

Darkness and in his last moment the knowledge that he would never love again.


End file.
